Voyage en Guinée, & dans les Ifles Garaibes, en Amerique; par Paul Edman Hert ci-devant medecin-in/pecteur de fa Majefté Danoife dens fes Poffeffions en Afrique; tiré de fa Correfpondance avec fes amis: traduit de l'Ailemand.

Travels in Guinea, and into the Caribbee Islands in America. PERHAPS no fpecies of publications have been fo much multiplied in our time, as travels; he who has feen wishes to relate, and he who relates what has been seen at a distance, makes himself heard very readily.

Hiftory always amufcs, fays Cicero; no matter how it is written; and this remark may be equally applied to travels.

The author of thefe letters, concerning Guinea, has travelled through the Danish territories on the gulf of Benin, in the countries of Akra and Popo, on the borders of Juida, which he calls Fida; for the names of these countries vary according to the different pronunciation of Europeans.

He had occafion to make a journey of mere curiofity in the kingdom of Juida, which lies more inland than the country which he was to inspect: and this kingdom has often been defcribed by travellers, in a manner much more extended and methodical than the Danish phyfician has been able to perform in a correfpondence, written apparently in fuch hafte, and at different intervals.

A great part of this correfpondence is, indeed, employed in mentioning all the events of a little war between two petty negroe tribes, the Adeens, and the Augueens.

But although this account might be abridged without inconvenience, it furnished the author always with fome particulars, which confirmed the obfervations of other traveliers, concerning the negroes, their character, their manners, and their

abilities.

The author informs us in his preface, that he was particularly defirous to write the natural history of man: this is an excellent object, but the execution has not been always anfwerable; and botanists, who feek the nomenclature and defcription of foreign plants, will, perhaps, be more fatisfied with the author, than the philofopher who feeks the knowledge of

man.

Thofe who have afforded us the best accounts of the country watered by the Niger, the Senegal, the Gambia, and by the different channels which are the branches of these great rivers, agree in thinking that the negroe is generally courage ous, that he is neither deficient in abilities nor industry; and that he is endowed with a prodigious memory.

Superftition and defpotifm blait the fruits of these natural

qua

qualities; and, in the frightful fervitude to which they are reduced in our American colonies, often fubftitutes in their place all the vices of flaves.

When they have acquired from us thefe vices, the greater part of the colonists have reprefented the negroes, under colours extremely unfavourable; and we have frequently believed this account, without remembering that the negroe, of whom they speak, is a being of their own creation, the child of flavery, and not of nature.

Senfible travellers, who have however obferved him in his natural foil, have drawn a different portrait of him; and the Danish doctor, in the fcattered traits which we can collect from him, agrees with them. No one is ever ftupid, who poffeffes a great memory; and that of the negroes is so faithful and certain, that it ferves them in the place of regifters and annals. At the end of forty years, they remember what has been deliberated in their affembles, that which has pafied in a combat, or has been regulated in a treaty; as if the tranfaction had taken place the preceding day. The old men are the depofitaries of thefe traditions, and are confidered by their nation as living books.

With regard to the defpotifm which crufhes them, if we knew not the pride of men, of whatever country or colour they may be, we could not conceive that in a country, where the enjoyments are neceffarily, throughout the whole, as bounded as the knowledge, men could be as jealous of power as in those fertile countries of Afia, where the opulence of nature seems to exhauft itfeif for certain defpots;-that a miferable chief of、 fome villages, formed of huts, whofe principal riches confift in a bad European hat, a fcariet cloak, and fome toys, fhould fport with the inferiority of his neighbours, as infolently as the greateft Mogul, or the Padithack. Nothing is, however, more certain, than that adoration is quite as humble, and tyranny as cruel, amongst the negroe nations, as in the palaces of the eaftern monarchs.

The barbarous cuftom of immolating a certain number of flaves upon the tombs of the kings, is from time immemorial eltablified in Guinea: they renew this maffacre every year, to celebrate the birth-day of the reigning king.

If any one demands of the king why he does not abolish fo thocking a practice, which is even injurious to his finances, fince he could derive much wealth for the flaves who are executed; he replies, that it is not in his power to abrogate a cuftom as ancient as the monarchy itself, and that an innovation of this nature would probably produce a rebellion of his fubjects.'

This is then the state to which ignorance reduces men. They would

would revolt if they were not facrificed! alas! fuch is the dominion of early prejudice, ftrengthened by fuperftition and habit. The whole world, ancient and modern, abounds with fimilar examples; the Spaniards would rife if one took away their holy inquifition! and fhall we be astonished that in all times, and in every place, the first defire, that is to fay, the inftinct of tyranny, is to brutalize men, to confecrate ignorance, and to profcribe inftruction? This inftinct is ftrengthened by the stupidity produced by tyranny: when it arrives at the highest degree, it proceeds fo far as to fay, whoever poffeffes more knowledge than myself, fhall be put to death.

The author cites, as a proof of the arbitrary power of the king of Dahamay, a fact which will appear monstrous, but which is common both in Afia and Africa, two parts of the world where defpotifm has been naturalized from the remotest antiquity.

In one of thofe annual feafts, of which I have spoken above, the king paffed before the unfortunate people, who were tied to the bottom of the royal fcaffold for execution that day. One of them could not confole himfelf, and uttered lamentable fighs. O how happy, exclaimed he, is this person, whilst I am plunged in mifery! The king afked what the malefactor faid they related it to him; the king, turning himself, replied this comical creature is not certainly a fool; and immediately raifing him, he commanded that his cords fhould be untied, and ordered that they fhould give him fome cloaths and money, to enable him to return home. But it was neceffary he fhould replace the victim he had liberated; and he performed this duty, by fcizing, from among the furrounding croud, the first whom he faw, and immediately had him bound with the others, and executed that day.'

With regard to that fpecies of courage which defpises death, the following is a fact among many others, which demonstrates that the negroes are as capable of it as any other people.

The king of Akim, a tributary of the king of Affianthy, requested permiffion from him to make war upon a smaller nation, and obtained it upon condition that he should, after the victory, fhare with him the booty. He put himself at the head of his troops, and obtained the victory; but as he got very little plunder, he conceived he might reserve it to his own use. Some time after, he learnt that the king of Affianthy intended to fend to demand his head; and as he knew that this fentence, once pafled, would never be revoked, he fummoned his principal minifters; related to them the misfortune which menaced him; and added, that he could devife nothing better, than to expedite his own retreat to the other world. His ministers

did

did not think it proper that he fhould make this journey alone, and therefore infifted upon accompanying him.

For this purpofe, they ordered as many barrels of gunpowder as there were perfons: every one feated himself upon his own; they placed in the midft of them a barrel of bran dy, and tobacco, with the head of each open: they fmoaked and drank reciprocally to their good journey, till the king gave the figual, upon which every one was to thrust in his lighted pipe in his barrel of gunpowder. All thefe heroes acquitted themfelves of their commiffion, and thus put a glorious end to their existence.'

The account, given by all travellers, of the worship rendered by the negroes of Juida, to the innocent kind of ferpents called fetiches, is confirmed by this Danith author. He reprefents that the ferpent fetiche, is the first divinity, and is here in the higheft veneration.'

It would not be well for an European to attack or kill it. I have seen it many times, and it is really a beautiful creature: it is the length and thicknets of an arm. The under colour is grey, intermixed with freaks of yellow and brown. One would think it poffetied a confcioufnels that nobody dared to injure it, for it goes boldly into all houfes: it is not a hurtful creature; it harms nobody.

Walking one day in a garden of the fort, I faw one coiled up, Bleeping at the foot of a tree; I was infinitely pleafed at this difcovery, and confidered it fome moments with fatisfaction: but as I was upon the point of getting a vafe to preserve it in fpirits of wine, a negroe, who worked in the garden, unfortunately perceived my intended prey, and I was foon deprived of my booty: he went out of the garden in great hafte, and returned quickly with a prieft, who, at the fight of the ferpent, threw himfelf proftrate on his face against the ground, kiffed the ferpent three times, muttered fome words, prepared his girdle to wrap it in, took it from the ground with fuch precaution, that it did not even awake, and carried it into the tem ple, where there is always meat and drink prepared for thele creatures, whether they come to enjoy it or not.'

It is clear that the most happy condition in Africa is, to be the ferpent fetiche, at leaft if one has not the misfortune to meet one of thefe European doctors, who would have very little fcruple in killing the best and most harmless creature, because it had a beautiful fkin, in order to preferve it in fpirits of wine. Our Dane, fo evil intentioned against the good fetiche, embarked in a flave fhip for the American iflands, to be an ocular witnefs of the cruelties which are exercised in the voyage over thefe unfortunate people, deftined for flavery; and mentions them with that indignotion, which is natural upon fecing a fel

low

low creature unworthily treated. It is unneceflary, in this place, to diftinguish the inftances: they are already too well known. All the powers of philofophy and eloquence have been employed to denounce, in the most energetic terms, the oppreffion and avarice of the Europeans. The author now before us was himfelf, in fome degree, a victim of these crimes. In one of those revolts which frequently arife in the negro vefils, that in which he was, incurred the greatest danger. The unfortunate flaves were faftened in pairs by iron collars, and crowded together with no weapons but thofe of defpair. In this fituation, by their united efforts, they loofened their hackles, broke with the rapidity of lightning upon their oppreflors, tore their arms from their hands, and deftroyed many of them. Two fimilar inftances of vengeance, which occurred in 1788, are recorded by Mr. Ifert; the first in an English, the latter in a Dutch veffel. In both, all the whites were maffacred; and in one, the blacks feeing fome coasting veffels coming towards them, leaped overboard, and perifhed, to the number of five hundred. The unfortunate adventurers were lefs happy in the fecond inftance: after the deftruction of their tyrants on board, they were retaken by the negroes on the coast, and once more reduced to flavery. In the revolt, which took place in the veifel in which Mr. Ifert himself was, he was the first perfon whom the negroes attacked with a razor, the only weapon in their power. In their efforts to deftroy him, however, they did not fucceed: he was refcued from the affault: a great number of the blacks were killed, and the remainder put into chains.

As far as thefe letters may be judged of through the medium of a tranflation, the ftyle does not appear very excellent. The familiar and poetical ingredients are not well incorporated. Shades fo different demand the hand of taste, to select and blend them agreeably. The phrafeology of the tranflator is remarkably incorrect in feveral inftances, and we have much. hesitation in conceiving that the Danish author is fo little informed in natural hiftory, as to call a ferpent an inject.

Ferdinand et Conflance, Roman Sentimental: Par Rhenois Feith: traduit du Hollandois. 8vo. Paris.

Ferdinand and Conftance, a fentimental Romance. WE thought, that the peculiar nature of this work would apologize for our introducing it, though occurring to us only through the medium of a tranflation, and, fo far as we can collect, neither an elegant, nor a faithful one. The ftyle

of